1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates in general to remote information handling system (IHS) administration, and more particularly to remote IHS administration of virtual media.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems (IHSs). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communication. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One example of an information handling system is a server, which is typically dedicated to running one or more services as a host on a network. The advent of cloud computing in recent years has made the use of servers increasingly common. As a result, it is not unusual for hundreds, if not thousands, of servers to be deployed in a given data center. Historically, servers were locally managed by an administrator through a shared keyboard, video display, and mouse (KVM). Over time, remote management capabilities evolved to allow administrators to monitor, manage, update and deploy servers over a network connection.
One example of these capabilities is the use of a remote access controller (RAC), which is operably coupled to, or embedded within, the server and remotely accessed by an administrator via an out-of-band communication link. As an example, the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) from Dell, Inc. has its own processor, memory, network connection, and access to the system bus. Integrated into the motherboard of a server, the RAC can provide out-of-band management facilities that allow administrators to deploy, monitor, manage, configure, update, troubleshoot and remediate the server from any location, and without the use of agents. As an example, multiple servers (e.g., blade servers) may be associated with a server chassis.
Accordingly, the use of a RAC for remote management of a server, or multiple servers associated with a server chassis, in a data center can be advantageous. However, use of the RAC can also present challenges. Dell introduced its virtual console (vConsole) solution though Virtual Network Computing (VNC) based remote console. VNC is a graphical desktop sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer. VNC transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network. VNC is platform-independent. There are clients and servers for many graphical user interface (GUI)-based operating systems and for JAVA. Multiple clients may connect to a VNC server at the same time. Popular uses for this technology include remote technical support and accessing files on a work computer from a home computer, or vice versa. However, customers who wants to use virtual media (vMedia) would need to launch a legacy third party application. The generally-known methods require plug-in installation and are platform dependent.
Current virtual media (vMedia) implementation is supported only through installation of an ActiveX or java plug-in at a management station. Local administrative rights for the management station is required. Also, the existing JAVA based interface looks outdated with limited user feedback. Present solution can attach only one vMedia device/image at a time, highly limiting modern use cases. For example, deploying an operating system (OS) image span across multiple ISO images requires user intervention at the middle of an OS deployment. An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, which is a type of disk image composed of the data contents from every written sector on an optical disc, including the optical disc file system. There is no drag and drop of file/image/media available with the existing solution.